Daniel set a hand on his shoulder. “Let’s rule out all the normal stuff before we panic. Is there a landline?”
“No,” Henry said.
“We’ll need to drive down the road, see if any of the neighbors have a phone we can use,” Daniel said.
Beth looked up. “And if we run into whatever scared them off in the first place?”
Daniel smiled, a small, tight thing that made his cheeks dimple. “Then we improvise.”
Henry looked like he might be sick. “If Alice is out there?—”
“She’s resourceful,” I said, forcing a confidence I didn’t feel.
He looked at me, eyes rimmed with red, and nodded. “Yeah.”
Beth drifted over to me, nudging my hip with hers. “So, what are we thinking? Should I start preparing for the chainsaw-wielding psycho?”
“Maybe,” Daniel said, lowering himself onto the couch. “If I had to guess, there’s a person responsible for Alice and hergrandmother being missing. Someone who knew how to get close without making noise. Someone who knows the area.”
“Why not a bear or just some natural thing? The woods are dangerous, after all,” Beth said.
“I guess that’s possible too, but that’s not what my gut is saying.” Daniel’s eyes glinted, and for a moment, I saw the bear behind them. The patience, the calculation, the slow, deliberate way he took in every detail.
We sat for a while in the orange wash of candlelight. Henry’s leg bounced so hard it shook the table. The wind picked up, rattling the porch rail. Somewhere out in the woods, a branch cracked, then fell silent.
I kept thinking about the unfinished teacup, the coat on the couch, the cold fireplace. All the little things that said, we were here. And then we weren’t.
Eventually, Daniel stood. “Okay. We have a choice here. Go find some way to make a call or–”
“No,” Henry said, his expression determined. “We need to look for her. She’s here. Somewhere.”
Daniel sighed. “Then, the second option. I can try to pick up their scent. I’ll go bear and circle the house, see what turns up. The rest of you stay put. If I’m not back in ten, lock the door.”
Henry stood, eager for anything that wasn’t just sitting and waiting. “I’ll come with you.”
Daniel frowned but didn’t argue. “Fine. But you stay close. If anything looks off, you run back here. Got it?”
“Got it,” Henry said.
Beth and I followed them outside where Daniel quickly shifted. He walked around the side of the house with Henry following behind. After a few minutes, Henry came running back. “Come on,” Henry called in a loud whisper. “He’s got her scent!”
SEVENTEEN
Emma
We’d been out in the cold woods for what felt like a week, but Henry’s phone shockingly said only forty-three minutes. Between the biting wind, the temperature, and the creepy woods, it was taking everything in me to not run screaming back to the cabin. Not that I knew the way back. I was about to ask if we could take a rest for just a minute, when Beth stopped so suddenly I ran into her.
"Ow," she said, but not to me. She rubbed her arm and squinted at something behind a fallen log. "There’s magic out here. Did you know that?"
Daniel grunted up ahead but didn’t break stride. He moved like he owned these woods, which, as a shifter, he sort of did. He’d shifted back into his human form a while ago, following the scent without needing to be in his bear form. Daniel’s beard caught the pale light like frost. The woods here had never heard of a straight path, so we stumbled after him over roots and under dripping firs, each step a new opportunity for Beth to groan about her shoes.
"What kind of magic?" I asked, already regretting it.
She hunched her shoulders. "It’s old. Feels weird. Not from here."
I glanced at her. "Did you bring any of those salt things?"
She tapped the messenger bag at her hip. "I’ve got everything a witch might need in this," she said.
